CH/House Rules
Attributes ;ST The cost of Strength has been halved to 5 points per level. Hitpoint cost is still 2 per level. Thr damage is fixed at Sw-2 for all levels of ST. ;SM other than 0 Increased SM is a disadvantage, at -10 per level. Size Modifier still affects the cost of Strength and it's parts as per RAW. Reduced SM is an advantage, at +10 per level. Advantages ;Arm ST Arm ST costs have been modified. Arm ST for One Arm is 1 pt/level. Arm ST for Two Arms is 2 pts/level. Arm ST for Three Arms is 2.5 pts/lvl. ;Lifting ST Lifting ST is 1 pt/lvl. ;String ST Striking ST is 2 pts/lvl. Perks ;Fast-Draw Training If you have this perk, you may treat your skill in a melee weapon as Fast-Draw (that weapon) when attempting to fast-draw or fast-sheathe that weapon. You may also treat your skil in a ranged weapon as Fast-Draw (that weapon) and Fast-Draw (that weapon's ammo) when attempting to fast-draw that weapon or its ammo. This perk does not allow you to attempt to fast-draw things that are cannot normally be fast-drawn, such as axes or polearms. ;Forced Entry Training If you have this perk, you may treat your skill in a melee weapon skill or striking unarmed skill as Forced Entry when using that skill to attack inanimate objects. ;Burst Fire Training If you have this perk, you do not have the -2 to Guns or Gun Weapons for firing full-automatic (RoF 4+). ;Payload Warhead Training If you have this perk, you do not have have the -2 to Guns or Gun Weapons for firing payload warheads from shotguns, flare pistols, and the like. ;Shotgun Training If you have this perk, you get +2 to Guns or Gun Weapons when firing shot shells at non-stationary (Move 3+) targets. This does not increase your effective skill when firing slugs. New Racial Templates ; ; ; ; Skills ;Technique Costs Each level of a Technique now gives you a +2 bonus, not a +1. ;Fast-Draw and Forced Entry These skills are largely replaced with the Fast-Draw Training and Forced Entry Training perks. Fast-Draw still exists for Fast-Draw (Potions) and Forced Entry is still valid for non-combatant characters who are skilled in using crowbars, fire axes, and boots against inanimate objects. ;Weapon Skill Categories The Melee Weapon skill categories on Basic 208-209 (Fencing Weapons, Flails, etc) can be taken as skills in their own right, at one difficulty higher than the skills in that category. Weapons in the category default to their category skill at -0. :ie, a character with Impact Weapons-18 can default Axe/Mace and Two-Handed Axe/Mace to 18, also. Gun Weapons is a P/A skill that covers Guns (LAW), Guns (Longarms), and Guns (Pistol). Innate Attacks is a P/A skill that covers all varieties of Innate Attack. ;New Techniques Armor Tailor (M/A, default to Armoury (Body Armor) -6, up to default-3): This technique is used to remove half the penalty to make new Fine armor or to retailor existing armor to Fine. Master Weaponsmith (M/A, default to Armoury (Melee Weapons) -6, up to default-3): This technique is used to remove half the penalty to make a new weapon Fine (Damage) or to sharpen and reinforce an existing weapon to Fine (Damage). Weapon Balance (M/A, default to Armoury (Melee Weapons or Small Arms) -6, up to default-3): This technique is used to remove half the penalty to make a new weapon Fine (Balanced) or to balance an existing weapon to Fine (Balanced). It is a separate technique for melee and ranged weapons. Equipment ;Armor All armor uses the rules. Better Fantasy Armor has its DR halved when defending against attacks from TL5+ firearms. ;Making Weapons and Armor PCs with the Armoury skill can craft weapons and armor. Material costs are 50% of the list cost of the item and labor is the other 50% but the PC can choose to absorb the labor cost. Roll against the appropriate Armoury skill. Success creates the item; failure by 3 or less creates a Cheap version of the item; failure by 4 or more wastes half the materials and produces nothing; critical failure wastes all the materials and produces nothing. On a success by 6+, the item is one quality level better than normal, and on a critical success, it is two quality levels better than normal (melee weapons become Very Fine (Damage) and Fine (Balanced)). TL8 melee weapons normally have the fine (damage and breakage) quality. Improving that to Very Fine is an Average technique that defaults to Armory -4 and can be improved to Armory -2. Creating weapons that are Fine (Balanced) is an Average technique that defaults to Armory -4 and can be improved to Armory -2. Tailoring armor is an Average technique that defaults to Armory -4 and can be improved to Armory -2. Success on this technique improves armor quality to Fine, and success by 6+ improves armor quality to Very Fine. TL8 remakes of low-tech steel armor (ie scale, mail, and plate harness) are at x0.50 normal base cost and get the Hardened quality for free. ;Modifying Weapons and Armor Tailoring armor is an Average technique that defaults to Armory -6 and can be bought up to Armory -3. A successful roll improves the quality of the armor one level. Using it requires materials equal to 1/4 the difference between the current cost of the armor and the new cost of the armor and has a labor cost equal to the material cost. Failure on the roll changes the armor quality to cheap or destroy cheap armor. Balancing a weapon is an Average technique that defaults to Armory -6 and can be bought up to Armory -3. A successful roll adds the Fine (Balance) quality. Using it requires materials equal to 1/4 the difference between the current cost of the weapon nd the new cost of the weapon and has a labor cost equal to the material cost. Failure on the roll changed the Balance quality to to cheap or destroys weapons that are already cheap. ;Converting Labor Cost to Time Every $200 in labor costs translates to 8 hours of effort. Anyone can spend up to 60 hours/week on useful tasks (training, jobs, crafting armor in the spare time) with no difficulty. Spending up to 80 hours/week requires an unmodified Will roll. Spending up to 100 hours/week requires a Will at -1. Spending up to 120 hours/week (or 17 hours/day) requires a Will roll at -1 every day. Spending up to 20 hours/day requires a Will roll at -2, cumulative per day. ;Repairing Equipment Damaged equipment can be repaired at 2% of the base cost per 1% of functionality restored, so it's always cheaper to replace anything that has suffered more than 50% damage. Magic ;General Magic uses the sytem. Success Roll ;Fright Checks Outside of combat situations, use Fright Checks and the Fright Check Table as written on B360. In combat situations, there is no +5 bonus to Fright Checks for "heat of battle." Instead, failing a Fright Check creates a fear penalty on all die rolls for interacting with the object of the fright check, equal to the 1+MoF of the fright check. Halve the fear penalty when making defense rolls against the subject of the fright check, or when dealing with any allies of the source of the fright check. In the case of multiple sources (ie, a horde of zombies), take the worst MoF and apply it to all sources equally. This penalty can be modified by several ways: * If an ally takes the Do Nothing action to shout encouragement and makes a successful Leadership test, reduce the penalty by 1. * The first time an ally attacks the source of the fright check and does damage, reduce the penalty by 1. * The first time the victim of the fright check defends against an attack from the source of the fright check (or is undamaged by an attack that slips through defenses), reduce the penalty by 1. Increase the penalty by 1 the first time the source of the fright check lands a damaging attack. * Each time the victim of the fright check attacks the source of the fright check and does damage, reduce the penalty by 1. But increase the penalty by 1 if the attack fails to hit, is defended against, or fails to do any damage. * Each turn the victim of the fright check takes a Do Nothing maneuver, reduce the penalty by 1, or by 3 if the victim voluntarily chooses to be Mentally Stunned. Roll to recover from Mental Stun as normal. :Example: Evan sees a bunch of zombies, and rolls an 18 against his Fear of 10. His MoF is 8, and he has a -9 on all rolls to interact with the zombies, and a -4 on all defenses. He tries taking a shot with his trusty shotgun, but with a -9 penalty on the hit roll, he fails to connect and increases his penalty to -10. Since the zombies are slow shamblers, Evan's player decides to be stunned and hope that he can recover from stun before the zombies reach him. After 3 seconds, Evan has reduced his penalty to only -1, but he fails to recover from stun, and the zombies are on him. A zombie bites him while he is still stunned, and Evan's fear penalty increases to -2. Combat ;Knockback Knockback should be based on the static friction of the object and be relative to weight and the amount of of surface in contact with the ground. So a standing human is relatively easy to knock around, while the same human lying on the ground is very difficult to move. Basic knockback value is weight in lbs raised to 2/3rds and divided by 10, or BL/2 for living things, BL/8 for unliving things, and BL/32 for homogeneous things. Halve that value for people who standing on two legs, flying, levitating, or for objects held in one hand. Use the base value for people or creatures standing on four legs (or their arms and legs), or for objects with 4 points of contact with the ground or objects held in two hands. Double the value for prone people or objects lying on the ground or tracked vehicles. A person or object moves 1 yard for every full multiple of its adjusted knockback value. ;Hitting the Wrong Target with Ranged Attacks Potential wrong targets are not just the targets in the line of fire, but in the cone of fire. The cone of fire is a 30 degree cone of infinite length centered on the target of the attack. ;Ranged Rapid Strike A ranged rapid strike is a ranged attack with a weapon with RoF 2+, used to attack two separate attacks. You must take the Attack or All-Out Attack maneuver, and you must target two separate opponents. Make two attacks, both at -6 to skill. Gunslinger or Weapon Master halves the penalty. You may not attempt a Ranged Dual Strike with the same maneuver, but you may use Ranged Rapid Fire. If you use Ranged Rapid Fire, you must split your RoF equally between both targets. ;Ranged Dual Strike A ranged dual strike is a ranged attack with two separate ranged weapons (usually one-handed weapons such as pistols). You must take the Attack or All-Out Attack maneuver, and you may target two separate opponents. If you target two opponents, make two attacks, both at -4 to skill (off-hand weapon penalties apply). If you target a single opponent, make two single attacks at -4 to skill (off-hand weapon penalties apply), and combine the number of shots hit when the foe has to defend. You may not attempt a Ranged Rapid Strike with the same maneuver, but you may use Ranged Rapid Fire. Absent an advantage such as Enhanced Tracking, you do not get the Aim bonus for more than one weapon, even if you are firing both weapons at the same target. ;Ranged Rapid Fire Firing a large number of shots per attacks gives a bonus to hit. Look up the number of shots fired on the Size and Speed/Range table, and use the half the Size modifier (rounded up) for that number of shots in yards as bonus to the attack roll. You must success by at least 0 in order to hit your target, and if you do, calculate your Margin of Success normally. If the target defends successfully, subtract the defender's Margin of Success from your Margin of Success. If your net Margin of Success is less than 0, the target has successfully defended against the attack. If your net Margin of Success is 0 or greater, you have hit the target. Subtract 2 from your Margin of Success and look up that value in the Size column of the Size and Speed/Range table. The resulting Linear Measurement in yards is the number of shots that actually hit. If your weapon has a Rcl of 2+, divide the number of shots hit by Rcl, rounding down but never less than one or more than the number of shots fired. If the target defended successfully, reduce the final number of hits by 1. :Example: Corporal Martin unloads his trusty M14 at a charging Soviet super-soldier at 10 yds. Martin has Guns-14 and is firing 12 shots after aiming for 1 second, so he is rolling against 14 - 4 (for range) + 5 (for Acc) + 4 (for RoF 10+). He rolls a 11, and succeeds by 8. The Soviet super-soldier rolls his Dodge of 11, and gets a 9, succeeding by 2. Martin's MoS is reduced by 2 to a 6. Subtracting 2 more and looking up on the SSR, Martin potentially hits with 10 shots, but after dividing by the Rcl of 3 and subtracting 1 for the successfully defense, he only hits with 2. If he'd fired a single round of 3" buckshot from his M500 trench gun, the Rcl would have been 1 and he would have hit with 6 of the 7 pellets. ;Leadership, Tactics, Soldier, and Professional Skill (Delver) One character (the leader) per side with Tactics may attempt a skill roll at the start of combat, with a +1 bonus per combatant on his side with at least 1 point in the Tactics, Soldier, or Professional Skill (Delver) skills. Success grants 1 Tactics reroll, +1 per MoS. A Tactics reroll can be used to reroll a failed combat skill, active defense, or Fear check. This is a free action by the leader, who rolls against the lower of her Leadership skill or the Tactics, Soldier, or Professional Skill (Delver) of the character receiving the reroll. There is a +1 bonus if the leader has at least a point in Leadership when rolling against Tactics, Soldier, or Professional Skill (Delver) and a +1 bonus when rolling against Leadership if the character receiving the reroll has Tactics, Soldier, or Professional Skill (Delver). If the roll is failed, the reroll is wasted and lost. A Tactics reroll can also be used to cancel another side's reroll, as a free action that succeeds automatically. The decision to cancel the reroll is made when the reroll is declared, before any other rolls. If a side's leader is killed or knocked unconscious, all remaining Tactics rerolls are lost but a new leader may step into her place. The new leader makes a Tactics roll at -2 and a further penalty equal to the number of rerolls already used, and gets 1+MoS Tactics reroll on success. The rolls made to use those Tactics rerolls are made at -1 for each leader that has been replaced this way. :Example: Corporal Martin has stepped up to replace Sergeant Brent and Sir Miles in leading a scratch squad made of three soldiers, a professional delving scout, and civilian priest. Sergeant Brent and Sir Miles had used three Tactics rerolls, so Corporal Martin rolls Tactics at -5 and critically succeeds, giving him more rerolls to use. If he attempts to give a Tactics reroll to the priest, he rolls against the priest's Soldier default of 9 with a +1 bonus for his Leadership training and a -2 for being the squad's third leader.